Review of Outbreak (1995) by Kai82 — 21 Oct 2020

A remarkable and strangely forgotten thriller about a virus outbreak in the USA. Years before the main story there is a virus outbreak in a small village in Zaire in Africa. Two US army virologist visit the village and leave after taking blood samples.

Shortly after the village is eradicated by an airstrike. After a jump to current time Col. Sam Daniels played by Dustin Hoffman is investigating a virus outbreak in the same region. After he returned to the USA his superior Gen.

Billy Ford played by legendary Morgan Freeman quickly delegates him to other tasks while there is an outbreak in the USA of a strange illness. This is just the beginning of an enjoyable and intense story.

It is a cat and mouse game on several levels. It has got twists and something like an all-star cast. Lets start with Dustin Hoffman who is a well acclaimed actor and delivers. There is Morgan Freeman and the statement that there is no bad movie with him.

I agree and he is as always excellent. Together with Rene Russo, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Spacy, Patrick Dempsey and Cuba Gooding jr there is one of the strongest cast you can imagine. The acting is good and there is no misstep.

The acting and story improve each other and go hand in hand. The twist and especially the ending make the film memorable. It is relative scientifically accurate for a Hollywood movie but tropes and action has to be included to be more mainstream or interesting.

If you want something really accurate you should watch “The Andromeda Strain from 1971 (Have not seen the newer one). It is scientifically accurate but because of this a contender for boredom for many.

What questions me is why this movie is forgotten. Even in my circle of friends that watched it in cinema and thought it was one of the best movies in that year forgot that it existed. It was a financial success as far as I know and many critics praised it.

Overall you have and immersive and engaging movie with great actors. Worth rewatching and should be remembered. Remark: The used bomb really exist and is a terrible weapon. It creates an aerosol that is widespread and shortly after ignited.

It creates an area of depression as the oxygen is removed (and that damages lungs even outside the explosion area). It is horrible what we humans invented to kill other humans.